


Anniversary

by stele3



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen, Partnership, Team, celebration, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 12:35:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/698293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stele3/pseuds/stele3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
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    </blockquote>





	Anniversary

**Author's Note:**

> Chin Ho, surprisingly, is the one who brings it up. The man has a poker face to rival those creepy statues on Easter Island, but Danny suspects that somewhere underneath Chin Ho Kelly is a complete and total softie.  
  
"You realize we're coming up on a year together?" Chin asks on the tail end of a briefing about drug dealers who're using dolphins-- _dolphins_ , seriously, what the hell?--to smuggle heroin onto the islands.  
  
Danny has a weird second of thinking that Chin is announcing his big gay love affair with Steve, because Danny _knows_ that he and Chin aren't dating, and if he and Kono are dating then Danny's gonna look real close at Hawaii's first-cousin-marriage laws.  
  
Except then Kono leans back from the digi-table, a grin breaking as she looks around at _all_ of them. "Oh, wow. 5-0's one-year anniversary. We should do something special."  
  
Danny groans. "Oh no. No, no no no. I had enough of anniversaries when I was married for ten of them."  
  
Steve cuts him a look. "Okay, no offense, Danno, but that may be a part of why you're not married anymore."  
  
Fortunately then there are kingpins to bust and dolphins being used as drug mules. Corralling all the little bottle-noses means bringing in the Coast Guard and some animal rights groups--because of course Steve has a contact in an animal-rights group; the man barely respects the rights of human beings to due process, but he has an old buddy who shows up in a t-shirt with a baby seal face on the front--and some volunteer veterinary surgeons, before they get their hands on $27 million worth of heroin.  
  
It's the kind of day that leaves Danny exhausted and smelling vaguely of dead fish. All he wants to do is go home, shower, call his daughter, and pass out, but the moment they're back in the office Chin says, "Our reservation's for 7:30, we should have plenty of time."  
  
"Great," Danny says once he catches up to the non-sequitor. "You guys have fun with that."  
  
"Oh come on, Danny," Kono says with a wicked grin. "You're not gonna stand us up, are you?"  
  
"I," Danny says, squaring his shoulders and planting his feet, "have just spent the worse half of this day attempting to keep all of you maniacs alive. You," he points at Chin, "even you, who I can usually count on for a single _iota_ of sanity, even you deserted me today. This day will not be soon forgotten, Kelly."  
  
"Hey, come on," Steve interjected. "We're all alive, Danno. What's wrong with celebrating that?"  
  
"What's _wrong_ , what's wrong with that, my friend, is that it's not something that should _have_ to be celebrated. It should be a fact of life, that life goes on, hearts keep beating and brains keep bullets out of them. It should not require its own special celebration that we have all made it out of the last 24 hours alive, okay, life _should not be that full of bullets_ to require that kind of celebration! But it is! Or at least my life is! So if you'll excuse me, I'd really like to go somewhere that entirely lacks bullets or any other kind of deadly weapon. A dinner reservation? With you three? _Is highly likely to end in a shootout and I have had enough of that today,_ thank you."  
  
Danny turns to stomp into his office, fuming. He isn't just being contrary: he genuinely hates anniversaries, like he hates Valentine's Day. If people don't know that he cares about them, every damn day, then one random day in particular isn't enough to make up for that. At the end, his wedding anniversaries with Rachel were agony: all of their arguments briefly stuffed away and bursting at the seams, both of them pretending that one nice dinner out on the town could solve all their problems. It's why he tells Gracie he loves her, every time, every phone call and every parting, because that sort of shit can't just be saved up until the end of your life, until it's too late, until an arms dealer has a gun to your head and your son has to listen to you die.  
  
And Danny thinks, _Hey, hey, wait a minute now, Detective Williams, how about you do some actual_ detecting _here_. Before the divorce, Rachel used to tell him that he was selfish; for a long time he thought that she was doing it just to piss him off, because it did, endlessly, but she wasn't entirely wrong, just in the ways that counted. Danny would give anything for the people he loved, would tear out his own heart with his bare hands; he serves his country and his community with smaller donations, the nick of broken glass and blown-out knees, ruined marriages and barely-seen children.  
  
That doesn't mean he isn't kinda self- _centered_ , okay, yes, _thank you_ Rachel, he can admit that now. His emotions are big and loud even inside his own head, and they have a tendency to drown out anyone else who isn't used to expressing themselves at the top of their lungs.  
  
Somebody like Steve.  
  
Danny takes a big mental step back, out of the place where he usually functions that's full of _jobGracieprotectfoodGracierageattackbadguyshopespitloveGracieRachelGracie_ , and looks around. Looks at their team. Chin and Kono stand with their shoulders tipped together, going over some last-minute paperwork. Their family is right there, an inch away and practically falling like coconuts from the trees all over these islands. There's a reason that they're both pushing this; it's not just for fun, or sadism.  
  
Danny, he's got Gracie on the weekends and yeah, he's got Rachel, too, just not how he (still) wants her. He's lost people--the Matty-shaped hole in his life might never stop aching--and it's too long a flight back to most of the ones he has left, but they're there. They exist.  
  
Steve, he's still in his office at his desk, talking to someone on the phone. Steve's mom blew up, his dad got shot, and he sent his only sister 3,000 miles away for her own good. If he's got kin anywhere else on these godforsaken volcanic rocks, Danny hasn't met them.  
  
"Well, shit," Danny says, and goes to fix it because no, Rachel, he is not a selfish goddamn man.  
  
He pushes Steve's door open and holds it there with one hip; the better to use both hands to gesture, scooping them through the air like he can lift Steve straight out of his chair. "Hey, _hey_ , what're you doin', are you seriously gonna keep us waiting? Military guys're supposed to be punctual, hang up and get your ass out here."  
  
Steve's eyebrows do complicated things and he holds up one finger. "Yes, Governor," he says into the phone.  
  
Danny bites his lip and folds his arms but stands his ground in the doorway while Steve finishes what sounded like a very serious phone conversation. When he hangs up he folds his hands on his desk and tilts his head at Danny, his expression half amused and half annoyed. "Yes?"  
  
"You," Danny points, "you, my friend, need a break. And a beer. And some Surf and Turf. Not in that order, though, don't want you drinking on an empty stomach, now c'mon, let's go."  
  
Steve's face lights up like Danny finally got the right password. Danny tries not to feel too stupid. "I though you weren't into the whole team-anniversary thing," Steve says even as he stands and grabs his jacket from the back of his chair.  
  
"Yeah, well..." Danny cranes his neck around. Out in the main room, Kono has disappeared, probably getting them transport, and Chin is pulling on his own jacket with a smirk in Danny's direction. Danny considers making an obscene gesture, but then he feels the prickle on the back of his neck that means Steve has done that ninja-SEAL thing where he moves across the room without making a sound and is now standing directly beside Danny, and all of Danny's thought processes are preoccupied with keeping his voice casual and not jumping out of his skin as he turns back around. "I realized, dinner's better when you don't have to cook it yourself, and I think all I've got left at the house is ramen. Besides, gotta have some traditions. It's the glue that holds society together."  
  
What he means is _families_ , but he doesn't know if Steve is ready to be let in on the secret state of his own life.  
  
Steve grins down at him. "I thought you said that was apologizing for getting people shot."  
  
Danny rolls his eyes but feels slightly encouraged that at least some of his ranting has sunk in. _You're a lunatic, but you're_ our _lunatic_. "That, too. Now are you coming or what?"


End file.
